Tele neck pickup, low resistance problem

[PrecisionGuitar]

I wound a Tele style neck pickup today with Alnico II magnets and 43awg single build Poly-Nylon coil wire. I put 7727 turns and I'm only getting 4.78K DCR. That's a very low reading and while my coil is a bit spongy, I can't see getting enough additional turns to bring it up to a 7.2k DCR.

Any suggestions? Maybe my magnets are not fully charged?

[Helmholtz]

43awg single build Poly-Nylon coil wire. I put 7727 turns and I'm only getting 4.78K DCR.

With typical Fender coil dimensions you should be getting around 7k. You might have some shorted turns. Meter battery good?

Magnets have no influence on DCR.

[PrecisionGuitar]

I tore it down, cleaned it up and spun it again, as tight as I dared, stopped at 7712 just to be close to the last attempt and the pickup now reads 5.56k. Is tension a determining factor?

[big_teee]

HI;
Make sure the start lead eyelet doesn't read ohms continuity, shorted to any of the 6 magnets.
Are you sure you're not using 42 SPN.
5.6k is what I get on my 42 tele neck version.
What is the bobbin height between the flats, not over 1/2 inch, I presume?
Be sure and tape your bobbin core, and make sure you're not scuffing the wire with the wire guide?
Wire scuffing can cause shorts.
T

[mozz]

Your counter could also be off, contacts could be bouncing. Post a picture of how full the bobbin is, someone here could tell you how many turns fit.

[PrecisionGuitar]

Hey, good news and bad.. I figured out what's up and getting 7k at 7700 turns. My neighbor has a micrometer and he measured my 43awg from ToneKraft and found that it is actually a mislabeled spool of 42 awg. Tore the pickup down once again and wound it with stock from Remington Industries and Bingo! Problem solved.

[big_teee]

You could have left that one 42, and made another one 43, and compared them.
The 42 sounds great, is strong and a little more stratty sounding.
I have several guys playing them around here.
GL,
T

[Mick Bailey]

I recently did a rewind for a guy who'd damaged the winding of a brand-new Tele neck pickup. So I got a call then saying he'd damaged the newly rewound pickup by breaking off the head of the screw, tried to Dremel it out and then caught the winding. I rewound it again and he then used the wrong screwdriver, slipped and damaged the wiring. I was pretty annoyed by this time so without thinking did a 'red mist' rewind. Only when I checked it was 4.7K and I'd picked up a 42g reel. Damn. So I thought it would be coming back anyhow and left it. This time he managed to fit it and get the guitar finished off. He wanted a pedal steel sound - the guitar has a B and G bender and he said the pickup was exactly the sound he wanted - crystal clear and singing.

[big_teee]

pickup was exactly the sound he wanted - crystal clear and singing.

Great story Mick!

Here's my notes on my version of a 42 Tele pickup.
The reasoning behind it is this.
Guys like the bridge pickup overwound and strong.
The bridge is usually stronger than the 43 neck pickup.
Some guys like a strat pickup in the neck for that reason.
A strat pickup is a bit wider spacing and doesn't line up with the strings as well, and requires routing, or a different pickguard.
So I wanted a regular nickel covered neck pickup to sound as strong as a strat neck pickup.
So here is the spec's I came up with.
I like to use .195x.630 x A5 magnets.
bobbin core between the flats is, .500 inches.
I stick the excess magnet length out the bottom, and wind the pickup mounted upside down.
I use some small for gauge red 42SP wire, that I have.
I wind 7800 turns, and get somewhere around 5.6k ohms DCR out of it.
Everyone around here that has played my 3 pickup test tele guitar, with the 42 neck pickup, just loves it.
Hard to get them to play the other two pickups!
T
**Give it a try, and if you don't have the .195 magnets, you can use the .187s.

[Lollar Jason]

Ive seen this scenario several times- when winding or rewinding a coil on charged magnets its possible to get a tiny metal shaving sticking to one of the magnets-worse case is an end magnet. Wind over it and it cuts through some of the insulation on the windings and youll get a low reading. You have to redo it and get the metal shaving off. That might be your problem or maybe not.